Inside the Braves with MLB.com's Mark Bowman

Braves would like to “disremember” September

It has been more than a week since the Braves completed their epic collapse and if you’re a Braves fan, I’m pretty sure you’re quite sick of reading the words “epic” and “collapse”. Back in the days when we didn’t have to worry about people’s feelings, we might have swapped this term with “complete and utter disaster.”

There were many colorful ways to describe the September that the Braves experienced and I’m quite sure many of you would like nothing more than to avoid reliving some of the details yet again. In fact if put under oath and asked to explain what transpired, I’m thinking many of you might channel Mark McGwire and say, “I’m not here to discuss the past…I’m here to be positive.”

If Roger Clemens were a Braves fan, he would likely like to “disremember” September.

As the Cardinals prepare to play the Phillies tonight in a winner-take-all fifth game of the National League Division Series, they are still recognized as the Cinderella bunch. They trailed the Braves in the Wild Card race by 10 1/2 games on Aug. 26 and 8 1/2 games back when September began. Heck, they were still three games back with just five games to play.

Yet, here the Cardinals are with an opportunity to match their ace Chris Carpenter up against Phillies ace Roy Halladay tonight to determine who will reach the NLCS.

Even after watching the disaster unfold in September, some of you might still be wondering what might have been had the Braves held on and qualified for the playoffs. Most of the rest of you have likely adopted, “there’s no way they would have advanced past the Division Series” theory.

Truthfully, there is no way to know exactly what October might have been like for the Braves. But even if it had proven to be a very short experience, it’s quite obvious that it would have been less painful than September.

The Braves exited August with the game’s fourth-best winning percentage. While winning just nine of their final 27 games, they produced a National League-worst .333 winning percentage.

Even after firing hitting coach Larry Parrish last week, Braves general manager Frank Wren said it would not be fair to put all of the blame on any one person or aspect of the club. While he seemed right with this assessment, a lack of consistency from an offensive perspective hurt the Braves all year.

When the offense ranked 11th in the National League in runs scored during the season’s first two months, a strong pitching staff kept the team afloat. Unfortunately the combination of a struggling offense and a pitching staff that kept games close on a nightly basis only added to the workloads experienced by setup man Jonny Venters and closer Craig Kimbrel.

Still the offense proved most destructive down the stretch when it needed to pick up a starting rotation that added a pair of rookies to the spots vacated when Jair Jurrjens and Tommy Hanson were felled by injuries. Much of this could be blamed on the fact that Brian McCann and Martin Prado were shells of their former selves once they were activated from the disabled list.

The Braves scored at least 105 runs in each of the first five months of the season. The 87 runs they scored in September were the second fewest in the NL. The only team to score fewer runs was the Padres, who scored 79 runs and still managed to win 11 games during the season’s final month.

Had the Braves gone just 11-16 during September, they would have won the Wild Card by one game and began the Division Series in Milwaukee. Brandon Beachy would have started the first game and Tim Hudson likely would have started Game 2 on short rest. Jair Jurrjens would have been available to pitch one of the games.

And if Brett Favre had remained with the Falcons….OK. Yep. Time to turn the page.

Braves general manager Frank Wren and all of his top scouts will meet in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. next week to evaluate what went wrong in September and what they need to do to prepare for the 2012 season.

Finding a new hitting coach is obviously on the shopping list. But if I had to guess, there are probably a lot more pressing matters on Wren’s plate. Obvious needs are to find a shortstop (Alex Gonzalez is a free agent), a backup infielder and possibly some other bench help.

But coming off this kind of conclusion also requires him to essentially evaluate every one of his players to determine exactly how they might best fact into his club’s future plans. Hiring a hitting coach can certainly wait at least a few more weeks.

As you might have noticed when Wren addressed the situations of Jason Heyward and Derek Lowe last week, he was not in the mood to protect people’s feelings. But based on the responses received via Twitter, it seemed like the best time for him to run for public office was last week after it was revealed what he had said about these two players.

When he said Heyward is not guaranteed an everyday role next year, it seemed like he was simply trying to light a fire under his young outfielder as he entered the offseason.

When Wren said he didn’t see Lowe in his rotation next year, he was confirming he was not going to allow finances to dictate the makeup of his starting rotation. There will be attempts to trade Lowe and at least a portion of his $15 million salary. There’s also that possibility, the 38-year-old hurler could enter the 2012 season as the game’s most expensive mop up reliever.

Hey things could be worse. At least guy has been known to have made just half of that salary while spending this past summer pitching for the Mississippi Braves.

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89 Comments

With the firing of Larry Parrish, the apology letter from John Scheurholtz, and Wren calling out Heyward and Lowe, I think the organization has handled this the best way possible. The Braves have been known as a passive organization. I was worried that passiveness might show itself after the “collapse”. I feel much better knowing they are just as disgusted with what happened as I am. I was fully expecting a “tip your cap” kind of reaction which is what we’ve come to expect.
I am pretty tired of the team under-performing. What’s frustrating is that if Heyward/Prado/McCann come back and have good seasons next year, then there will be 3 other players who struggle. I know it’s difficult to get all 9 guys going at once… but 6 out of 9 would be a nice start. I am excited about next year. I am thrilled that Lowe will not be placed in the rotation based solely on his contract and I am happy that Jason will have to earn his spot. With what our rookie pitchers did this year, their is indeed a bright future. Here’s to healthy arms and a solid hitting team in 2012!

I agree. So far the Braves organization has done a great job with this situation. My biggest thing is we need to stop having key players get hurt. 2 seasons ago Jair screwed us by getting hurt at the end of the season. He did it again, and this time it was 100 times worse because hanson was also not healthy. We either need to trade one of them for a durable #2 guy, or I guess pray they’ll be healthy for a full season. Which we all know won’t happen. Also, trade Prado while you’re at it with a prospect for an OF power bat or #2 pitcher

Big Ben, there is no way to predict who will be hurt. I guess you mean that we should dump our players with past health issues? If so, you could barely field a team. The Braves biggest problem is having more than 2 guys carry the team at a time, as Bravo already noted. The thing that bothers me the most is the ridiculous amount of money that was not on our roster at seasons end. And, yes, im talking about KK and McLouth. Granted McLouth was hurt but he should have been gone a long time ago. We are getting nothing in return with them.

I remember vividly from this past trading deadline that the rumor mill was rife with stories of the Braves being willing to include as much as $10 million in any trade involving Derek Lowe, and I also remember that the Braves did nothing to dispel or quash those rumors. Given how tightly Capt. Wren and Adm. Schuerholz like to run the ship (i.e., control the information and public perception), I have to believe there was a great deal of truth to those rumors. Even if the Braves paid all $15 million of Lowe’s 2012 salary and got little in return, the ancillary effect of freeing up his roster space and getting him out of the clubhouse would have to be a benefit.
One other thing: Martin Prado has been my favorite player for the past 3 seasons, but I hope the Braves will recognize as I have that he is a super-sub, and not an everyday guy. Not only does he break down when forced to play every day, but the weaknesses in his game get exposed (it happened after the All-Star break in 2010, too, not just this year). He can be the solution to the utility infielder problem. Moving him back to utility IF and 5th OF can be the solution to the problem of his diminishing productivity. The Braves have 4+ months to solve the problems of corner OF production, just as they did to solve any problems last offseason. They have got to stop this hoping-against-hope, wishful thinking, “hey, when we get so-and-so back from his umpteenth injury it’ll be like getting a great free agent or making a big trade” mentality. It doesn’t work. Hey Braves: it’s broke, so fix it!

The Braves also won 5 NL pennants during their run of division titles. Talk to us when the Phillies do that…
I do hate what happened to Howard on that final out, though. Talk about adding injury to insult!

Nice to see bill found someone else to argue with. First it was the guy who he is now jeleous of (because of his blogging popularity), then it was brandon (who is like bill and needs to argue with someone) and now it is “Weinus”.

You lot all mocked me when I said 6 games before the end of the season that the braves were screwed. I told you we should of traded Jurjens and hansen at the ASB. And if we had then we might of made the postseason and we would of had a massively amazing minor league system full of young guys who can have a huge impact for little money in years to come. I was proven correct.

I say dump Prado Lowe and Medlen. If everyone looks at the Braves Rotation they can probally get away with giving up on Lowe and Medlen and get some decent players maybe packaging Lowe and HIcks to Seattle for Figgins Then send JJ Ernesto Mejia Joe Terdoslavich to KC for Billy Butler and Yamiaico Navarro. Now here how to use everyone first tell Chipper bye bye Figgins at 3rd Butler in RF/LF and make Navarro our SS bring up Pastornicky and use him as our Ut guy. Now heres how the lineup should look like next year

this is idiotic…. it would be great to have these players, but who goes for that deal?! I’m sure Frank Wren would love it. And why on earth would you make Pastornicky a utility infielder. He’s 22 let him develop in minors if he’s not playing next year.

If we trade JJ or Tommy, it needs to be for a upper level SS. Perhaps we could somehow get Andrus back in a Braves uniform?? A dream, sure. But that’s the only type of level player we could justify trading either pitcher.

I was wondering what are the Braves going to do bout Joe Terdoslavich I mean hes tearing it up in AFL. I mean going to be 24 next year so why not give him a shot on the team like maybe as a 1B/OF kind of UT guy. He switch hits so he would be a great addition to the lineup.

I could see that happen but the AAAA Braves have said that they are interested in trading for JJ so how bout getting a RH bat and get someone like Butler and use him in the corner OF positions. The only SS i would love the Braves go after is Bonifacio from the Marlins he would be a damn good additon to top of the lineup with Bourne.

Bobby you make alot of good points, but we should of traded our over achieving pitchers in the all star break when we could of got a kings ransem for them. We could of got a big time SS for the next 5 years and a big time OF too. Instead we have two injury prone pitchers who will leave in a year or two and we will get only a draft pick for them. And this “win-now” strategy was so misleaded because we couldnt even make the postseason. Our offense is still reliant on a 40 year old 3rd base man called chipper jones. We should of traded our pitchers to boost our offense and farm system for years to come. I was proven correct. Some on here dont seem to be able to take that fact.

Well, let’s see…he spent his age 22 season at High-A, his first year at that level, and while he did show impressive power numbers for that level, apparently NO ONE in the Braves organization thought the performance warranted a call-up to AA at any point in the season (or if anyone did, they weren’t in a position to make or influence such a decision). It was actually his first truly impressive season at any level, and, while he may prove to be a late-bloomer, he is on track to spend his age 23 season at AA. For comparison’s sake, Freddie Freeman will spend his age 23 season 2 years from now in the ATL as the everyday 1B, number 3 hitter, NL Gold-Glove winner, All-Star, and MVP candidate.

I saw this one coming but I think we will be better because of it next year. We brought up some good rookies and they got tested in pressure situations right off the bat. Especially Randell Delgado. That farm system showed us why Wren was so protective of it.

I was one of the ones that was screaming for Wren to trade some of the pitching prospects like Mike Minor to get Hunter Pence or Carlos Beltran but glad now it did not happen. Beltran did not help the Giants get to post-season and Pence is sitting at home now watching the next round of play offs.

Prado is no super star by far but he has more heart than most of the superstars out there. He plays the game the way it should be played, hard. He goes where ever asked, OF, 2B, 3B, SS and 1B and does very well. He had a down year but not a bad one. I think if it had not been for the Staph infection and missing a month he would have been around the .280 mark. For the guys bashing on him, cut the guy a little slack. Where would we have been last year without him or Infante.

Heyward hopefully had attitude adjustment this year. Just because people say you are the number 1 prospect in MLB, until you get to the show and prove it year in and year out, it’s just words. Does anyone remember Brien Taylor that was the number 1 prospect for the Yankees back in the 90’s. He never pitched a major league game. Glad to see that Heyward will have to earn his spot next year.

Lowe. So glad to see him taken out of the starting rotation for next year. He is the AJ Burnett for the National league or is it that AJ Burnett is the Lowe for the American League. Both are well over paid and well under performed since they got their contracts.

Please do not resign Alex Gonzalez. I don’t care that he can do what he is suppose to do and catch the ball! He cannot hit in scoring situations to save his life. If we keep him than we need to talk to MLB about the restictions of bat sizes. He needs a longer one and it needs to be extremely long. His strike zone is a 40 acre field.

Glad to see the Braves fire the hitting coach. To bad all the blame cannot go to him though. I thought that you learned how to play the game in Little League, High School, College and in the Minors. I thought they taught you to swing at strikes and do not swing at balls outside of the strike zone. Last year we did this but this year we forgot that rule. The hitting coach is there to help the hitters with their mechanics not to remind players making $500,000 and up of this rule.

Freddie Gonzalez I think did a fine job this year. I loved Bobby Cox just as much as the next fan but it was time for change. The meaning of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome but it never comes. Bobby just lost the fire that he had in the 90’s. Freddie brought it back and hopefully after the Spetember they just had, he will bring even more of it next year.

These players get to do what so little of us have a chance to do. They play a game that we all love and get paid very well to do it. How many of us can say we work at a job that we love and get paid very well for it? I bet it is less than 3%.

To all the players. If you want to see the Ted filled up for years to come, play the game right and play it with heart. Show the fans that you love the game as much as us and that you do consider yourself extremely lucky that your job is to play a sport and get well paid for it. Then the fans that are not as fortunate to be able to say this might show up a little more and willing to pay the high price of a ticket.

Well, I will do my best Zidane impression and state again what I would like to see the Braves do this offseason.

1. Get rid of KK and McLouth. I don’t care if we get a case of balls in return. What a waste of time and money they have been. Maybe KK can put his soul into selling hot dogs, at least we would get some sort of return in our investment.
2. Trade Lowe for something, anything, and hopefully don’t eat all of the salary.
3. Get a high level SS. Forget a defensive specialist or liability. We need an all around player than can come in and give consistent high level contribution. We don’t have time to wait on Pastornicky. I’m sick of relying on rookies and rebound players.
4. Fix Jason Heyward by any means necessary. I don’t care if we need to do our best version of the 6 million dollar man and completely rebuild him.

1. Get rid of KK?? We tried and that did not work. We will be eating all that contract.

2. McLouth we will be stuck with as well. If we are lucky to unload him, we will be eating most of that contract as well.

3. Trade Lowe??? We tried that last year as well. Other teams saw what we saw and that is he cannot pitch anymore. We are stuck with him so we need to use him as a blow out pitcher. If we are winning or lossing by 7 or more runs, use him. If we are winning by 7 than you can always take him out. If losing by 7, he’s use to it anyway so he will feel at home.

4. Pastornicky will be the answer. May not be at the begging of the year but by the end we will see him. Getting a high level SS will cost us dearly. Either in money or prospects. More times than not, this does not work out. The goal every year for every team is to win the World Series. Most will not even come close to post season. But every Winter there are a couple of teams that will spend an ungodly amount of money or talent to get a player they think they need. At the end of July the teams that are still in the run for it will trade away great prospects to get a player they think they need. Only a couple of times does this work out.

Phillies over the last 2 years gave up either money or good prospects to get Cliff Lee, Roy Halliday and Hunter Pence. Last year got beat out by the Giants in the NLCS and this year got beat out by the Cardnials in the DLCS.

It takes a team with great team chemistry to be able to go all the way. When you have to many big names on a team, along comes the egos. Example is the Red Sox. At the beginning of the year, on paper, they had it all. By the end, they imploded. Then the manager left.

The Brewers are the team that I am picking to win it all. They have players that came from within, a couple of trade / free agent signings and this turned out to be a team with great team chemistry. They also have the great attitude that you will not beat them in their house. They had the best home record in MLB.

5. Fix Heyward??? He is not the only reason the Braves collapsed this year! As a team, they did not hit! Yes 2 good starters went down but the rookies that came up were not bad at all. There were only 3-4 games that we got blown out of in September. On the other hand though there was 9 games in September that we either were shut out or lost by 1 run.

Bobby why in the world do you want to trade medlin….if you didnt notice befor he got hurt he was basically pitching like an ace pitcher he was 6-1 before the injury and came back strong even at the end of this year…however i do agree with you on getting grid of an overrated since 1999 mr. chipper jones

-How is Pastornicky the answer if we won’t even see him until the end of the season?? Please explain that comment. Just you saying “he will be the answer” is not going to cut it for me. All of that extra pitching is nice, but it’s even nicer to have a complete lineup. We need a SS, its that simple. We do not have a huge payroll, so we are going to have to give up something in order to get something. All we have is extra SP. If we can’t find a high level SS, then we probably just find a mediocre one until Pastornicky is ready. But personally, I don’t think we have the time to wait until he is ready.

-I said get rid of KK and McLouth. Release, DFA, trade…I don’t care, they do not need to be in a Braves uniform any longer. Teams always look for SP help. There are more ways to get rid of a player than a trade.

-The last time we tried to trade Derek Lowe, he still had multiple years and a large amount of his contract was still unpaid. At this point, if we eat a large sum, I think we can move him. We can’t justify paying a long relief pitcher that kind of money, and it’s not going to happen.

-We had great chemistry last year and this year and you can see how far that got us. Production greatly outweighs chemistry. I agree chemistry is needed, but it’s not the only thing. Nate McLouth could be the best teammate ever, but .220 isn’t going to cut it.

I didn’t realize KK and Nate’s contract we done. That is a huge relief. I thought that they still had one year left. Even if we have to eat just about all of Lowe’s contract, we need to get him out of town. Hopefully we can at least get a utility guy or SS depth in the deal. You would think we could get SOMETHING in a deal for a guy who has been an above average pitcher for a long time.

When you look at guys like KK and Nate, it is easy to see Bill’s perspective on Wren. I don’t exactly agree, but you have to admit there is some validity. But i’m sure the same could be said for just about every GM in MLB.

Let’s put it this way; Wren can trade with the best of them, but his free agent signings usually suck. McLouth and the Kotchman for Texieria trades are the only ones that sucked, but we got 2 months of a blazing hot LaRoche for Kotchman at least.

McLouth trade looked good on paper. Everyone we gave up was crap except Morton, but he had the worst ERA in the history of baseball in 2010. Wren’s free agents.. Eric Hinske, Eric O’Flaherty (waivers), Billy Wagner, Takashi Saito, Sherrill was above average this season.

Yeah adding $7MM dollars of salary for a shitty OF for a mid market team “looked good on paper” ?????? That trade had jack shit to do with who we gave up, it had everything to do with what we “took on”. Like KK and Lowe these disastrous moves kept us from fielding a comp. team..Wren has an eye for talent like a chicken has an eye for an egg. It came out of his butt but he has no clue what it is. We spent 40 % of our payroll on those 3 disasters. Anybody want to defend QTIP now?

Anyone else bothered by Heyward’s comments about what he thinks he needs to do to be ready to earn back his starting role in spring training? All I read in his comments in a recent AJC posting is that he thinks that breaking up long stretches of taking it easy with intensive sessions “in the cage” will be all he needs to do. He kept repeating that “in the cage” mantra like it was some secret revelation that contained all the wisdom the baseball gods have to offer. As far as I can tell, the only hitters who benefit from work “in the cage” are well-established veterans like Chipper and McCann, who know themselves and what they need to do to get to their established level of performance, so that the cage is just like a practice room for a musician, just a place to fine-tune. Except for a few weeks in 2010 he hasn’t shown any aptitude for success at the major-league game (which includes a whole lot of off-the-field, peripheral concerns and distractions that can sink the most talented of athletes if they’re not smart about how they live their lives). Injury concerns aside, it’s his mental approach that will cause him to succeed or fail at this level. And this is not a young jock who doesn’t know how to express himself; he is saying exactly what he thinks (remember, his parents are both Ivy Leaguers, and J-Hey writes poetry). Something tells me he’s taking advice from all the wrong sources, people who know nothing about what it takes to succeed in the majors, and who are far more concerned with his earning potential in free agency–in short, they are telling him not wear himself out before that first contract year comes up. Someone needs to remind him that free agents are rewarded for what they’ve proven they can do over several years, not their potential. As the late Ken Brett said after looking back at a mediocre career: “The worst curse in life is unlimited potential.”

If for some reason (worse case scenario) that we can’t unload Lowe…Do you think they would ever consider using him as a 7th-8th inning guy? He is a former closer. Not sure how it would go, but he would at least be able to coax a few double plays. What do you guys think, I’m still on the fence with that thought. Considering we don’t have much else to talk about right now, at least it should be a good discussion.

If Lowe is with the Braves (the ATLANTA Braves) next year he seems destined for mop-up relief and spot starts as needed–the swingman role…and that’s only because they have to pay him. Can’t see them pulling the same stuff with Lowe that they did with Kawakami. That move backfired because the Braves apparently thought KK’s deep sense of Japanese pride would win out, he’d retire from MLB and go home to the Japanese league. They underestimated how big a swallowing of pride $6.6 million can buy.

All of the morons who think Martin Prado’s value is diminished by his 2nd half performance, don’t know jack shit about people or baseball. The little whiners think that because our training staff doesn’t know jack shit, that Martin has gone from a +.800 OPS hitter to dog shit. I mean the guy got a staph infection which almost killed him while under the care of our esteemed staff. It took Miami staff to even diagnose it. And some how he couldn’t come back from that in the ATL summer. Yeah. he has lost it. Grow up pinheads. All this whining sounds like the Zippy monkey who knew that trading key comp. of our staff was the best thing for the Braves.Lowe sucks, he sucked before we signed him. He is a drunk who we signed at 4 million dollars per year over market Maybe this might be the totally disorganized front office. They haven’t made a good decision in 3 years. It’s time to buy out Liberty,Get Qtip as far from this team as possible and try to restructure..

Martin Prado’s value has been diminished. All the biased fanboy love, excuses, and insults doesn’t make an arrogant rant about something trivial true. A .302 OBP would diminish Albert Pujols’ value(and Prado only had a very average .320 OBP in 257 PA’s before the injury). Jeff Francouer had a higher OBP, and that is saying something. But it’s of little importance considering there is no reason to trade him.

Pinhead, did you ever look at his stats before and after his illness? My want to consider that before you go off on another mindless rant. Especially when it was the team trainers who couldn’t even figure out what was wrong with him. You sound like Zippy Monkey talking about trading JJ. Get a clue.

I did. It sounds like you know this, seeing as how the only thing you’ve done is try to insult me as many times as possible instead of actually acknowledging at the numbers yourself. Prado had an awful March/April(.252/.295), a normal Prado May(299/.346), a lost June, a decent half month of July( .288/.313, you know, after the injury), and a completely rubbish August and September. I count 1 good month, 1/2 of a decent month, and 3 awful months with 1 month lost to injury. Looks like Prado was replacement level at best all year there, Billy Boy. But please, don’t actually read the numbers, just toss around a few more insults because one of your boys underperformed at their job and you feel some obligation to defend their honor on the internet. Prado’s value is so diminished that NC is thinking about including him in a trade to get Mr. Future HOF CF wonder Reeses Ganja Schafer back so we can flip him and and Lowe for Carl Crawford.

Can we stop with the Lowe is a drunk thing? I mean, wtf dude. The charges were dropped. You’re obviously an O’reilly fan with you’re overuse of “pinhead,” and I don’t think I need to get into that man’s history. Let’s keep the comments to on-the-field material, unless off-the-field is affecting on-the-field. Unless you have some PI following Lowe around, I don’t think you can make that link.

Here’s the deal. We need a SS, we need a RFer, we need a Hitting coach, we need a manager and we need a GM. The needs aren’t all equal. i say we start with QTip.This team needs an overhaul. As good as the talent is in our system, our mgmt of that talent is equally bad. The only way you start to change it is to dump that white haired moron. Please god send me an angel.

Yes we need hitting coach as the best hitting team for ave in the NL is the Cards and third best is the Brewers. In the AL the best hitting team for ave is Texas and the third best is Detroit. So much for pitching wins. Our ss in 1991 batted in the .240’s and .211 the next year. Last yeat we made the payoffs and this year missed by one game which is a whole lot better that the year’s when Skip Carey would tell you to go walk the dog in the seventh inning if you used our sponsor’s. Yea we really need alot of changes.

I see Joey Terdoslavich as the replacement for Chipper at 3B once he decides to hang up his cleats after next season. Of course, it’s only if long keeps up his progression. This probably means we’ll have two rookies infielders starting in the 2013 season with Tyler Pastornicky and Joey Terdoslavich. Lets just hope they don’t digress within the next 2 years.

They haven’t made a good decision in 3 years? Billy Wagner. There’s one. And for Lowe sucking before we got him, he had 4 consecutive seasons with an ERA under 4, with 200+ innings in each of those seasons all but once (199). DURRR DURR DURRRRRRR

The good have been great????? OMG. Troy Glaus, Garrett Anderson, Scott Linebrink, George Sherrill, Alex Gonzalez, Casey Kotchman, Blondie McGone, Derek Lowe, Kenshin Kawakami, Matt Diaz(remix), Julio Lugo(for god’s sake), Chippers ridiculous contract, endangering the careers of the 2 best young relievers in BB. Jesus how stupid do you have to be to get fired in this organization? The only reason the Braves have been competitve the last 2 years is their farm system and the major league staff has ruined half of them. Frank Wren is a mindless peon and should be the first sack when Liberty sells. Fredi should be close behind and everyone working for him. Clean sweep. Maybe Francona wants a little better weather.and would like working for Arthur Blank.

How was the George Sherrill signing bad? But yet you forget to mention Eric Hinske, Billy Wagner, Takashi Saito, David Ross, both Vazquez trades(I of course am referring to Vizcaino and flipping Dunn, not Melkys bum ass.), Jurrjens/Renteria swap, Will Ohman and Infante, Infante extension, the initial Greg Norton acquisition, Hudson extension, Uggla, Uggla extension. plenty of good moves have been made. I think Wren is just a big of an idiot as you do, but not acknowledging over a dozen good moves is the epitome of ignorance. And if this whole huffy puffy rant about the owners of the organization, the front office, the general manager, the manager, and all the players the team employs is genuine and not just you trolling, then let me ask you this; why the fuck are you a Braves fan?

Billyboy is like that family member who sees nothing but all the negatives. Never acknowledging anything anyone does that’s positive. U know, the one that makes some good points but is blinded by their own opinion and never takes anything into consideration that doesn’t coincide with his beliefs. Oh well.

Alex Gonzalez was a Bobby Cox move. Sherrill was an effective pickup and GREATLY improved over his past 2 seasons. Kotchman had a high ceiling which wasn’t reached until this season. Wren traded Kotchman for Laroche who almost drove us into the playoffs. Chipper’s “ridiculous contract”.. Well I don’t think resigning the face of the franchise for a decade when he is still a valuable piece is very ridiculous. Diaz coming in to hit lefties wasn’t much of a bad decision. Lugo wasn’t a great move but there were few options available. The dumb decision there was Fredi continuing to play him and sometimes batting him second. Kawakami for 2 years would’ve been a decent move. 3 years wasn’t so great. They were trying to be creative in an incredibly weak market of starting pitchers. At the time everyone was pissed at Wren for not getting Peavy for Hanson/Escobar, or signing Burnett. Last time I checked Wren wasn’t making decisions to bring in Venters and Kimbrel. Nor did he get Mac, Prado, etc to stop hitting for a month. Really sucks that I still contribute to this mess of a blog when I have to constantly repeat myself with the same obvious facts over and over.

I think the Kotchman rant was more directed to the trade that I will not mention. I’m not sure how someone could disagree with the Matt Diaz pickup? Maybe I read it wrong. As far as Chipper, didn’t he restructure his contract during his best years? Perhaps this is just a way of repaying him?
As far as Kawakami, I don’t agree. I did not like the signing from the beginning…. Bobby had never even see the guy play before we signed him. For my liking, it was too much of a risk and it didn’t pay off. Granted, there probably wasn’t a big market for starting pitchers, but at least sign somebody that you know more about. Perhaps that is a discredit to our international scouting and not Wren? It’s hard to tell. But for me, it was too much of a gamble considering you signed him to a 3-year contract. I agree 2 years would have been more sensible.

It is nice to have someone like Bourne in our OF. At least we don’t have to worry about that OF spot next season. My only question is, where does this leave Constanza? The kid played well and has a ton of speed. With Prado in LF and I’m assuming Heyward in right, that still leaves us with Hinske and Diaz. Perhaps Hinske will serve more as a pinch hitter and backup first baseman?

Why haven’t we already announced Dismuke as our hitting coach. Everybody that I have heard talk about the guy loves him. Why do we have to go searching if we have someone 30 min down the road?? Perhaps they feel that his services are best suited for guys sent down for a confidence boost??

Well, Heyward didn’t have a hole in his swing at AAA. He had an amazing rookie season before his injury. If Dismuke doesn’t get the job it will probably be one of those unfortunate situations where you are more valuable in your lower level job. But I don’t know much about the guy other than a few quotes here and there. Though I am ecstatic that they canned Parrish. And TP must feel a little vindicated from all the criticism that he received, whether it was warranted or not.

If Jamie doesn’t get the job it’s a crime. We can find a swing guru to teach our youngsters, but right now we need more help in the Majors. Our MiLB system seems to be hitting on all cylinders, ML club, not so much.If we have any hope of fixing the big club’s offensive woes we have to have somebody who knows something about swing mechanics, rather than someone who had a name as a hitter some time ago(i.e. LP and TP). Sometimes you know something but you can’t teach it. LP was an obvious ex. of that. I mean for god sakes he had never at any level been a hitting coach before. I’m still hoping someone snags the Bravos from Liberty and guts our ego filled, no talent front office.Cue the soccer morons.

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